Our first Evening Talk
for 2006 was held on 23 February on “The Bygone Years”. It
was most pleasant reminiscing about the early days of
Rietvlei and was well attended.

Our next evening gathering is our fund-raising gala play
evening at the Milnerton Playhouse on Thursday 23 March. The
Milnerton Players are putting on two short plays: The Public
Eye/The Private Ear. Tickets are R50 each and include a
glass of sherry before the performance. Make up a party, or
come on your own, and join us for what promises to be a most
enjoyable evening. The show starts at 8.15 pm, so arrive at
the theatre from 7.45 pm.

Here is a synopsis of the plays for your interest:
Peter Shaffer (acclaimed playwright who also wrote Amadeus
and Equus) wrote these two short plays. They are usually
performed together although they are not really linked.
Usually the same director will direct both plays, but for
this production there are two different directors.
The Private Ear : Drama about a young man with low
self-esteem. Invites a friend to join him for dinner with a
young lady he's keen on - she ends up falling for the
friend.
The Public Eye : Comedy about a man who falls in love and
marries a younger, free-spirited girl. After a few years of
marriage the relationship loses its spark until an unlikely
private detective points the way back to romance.
For tickets please telephone Pauline on 557 6920 a/h or 464
4748 o/h or email at ppotton@heroldgie.co.za or at
friendsofrietvlei@worldonline.co.za . Do this URGENTLY as 23
March is around the corner!!

We have paid R1800.00 to have the gala evening at Milnerton
Playhouse and we desperately need you to assist in selling a
few tickets/and come/ or give a donation if you cant come,
if we are to make any money on the evening.

AUTUMN

Autumn is here, with its
cooler days, bringing to an end the hot windy days which
have characterised this summer in Cape Town . Sunrise is
happening later and I for one am now leaving home for work
in the dark. We have already had some much-needed rain.
Nature is very forgiving, and dry parched areas recover and
become green again surprisingly quickly. Bird life is still
abundant and flamingos have been spotted from the highway.

WIND AND DUST AND SAND

Pumping of water to damp down the dust blowing off the pan
has started and together with the rain should help reduce
this problem. As many of you will have seen, the water level
of the north and south vlei's is very low. This can be
attributed to pumping so much water onto the central pan, as
well as the low rainfall over summer 05/06.

EDUCATION CENTRE

Thanks are due to the Scouts, led by Andrew van den Honert,
who worked so hard on our Education Centre, wielding paint
brushes to seal the wood and beautifying the amphitheatre
and path leading up to the Centre. The Education Centre will
be used by schools to celebrate Water Week in late March.
Water is a precious commodity and learning its value starts
at a young age.

ICLEI CONFERENCE

Cape Town was host to the 2006 ICLEI (Local Governments for
Sustainability) World Congress and Rietvlei formed part of
one of the biodiversity tours available to delegates from
all over the world. After enjoying tea and refreshments and
visiting the penguins at SANCCOB, the busload of delegates,
led by Pat Titmuss, arrived at the Rietvlei Education
Centre. The fifty five delegates included the new world
president of ICLEI (from Canada ) and reps from Portugal ,
Norway , United States , South America , Germany ,
Netherlands , South Africa , Zimbabwe and Korea . In the
Rietvlei Education Centre they were addressed by Pauline and
Barbara from Friends of Rietvlei, who spoke about community
involvement in conservation matters, and by Arno, one of the
students, who spoke about his role in the capture and
relocation in the middle of the previous night of Cape Hare
from Phillppi into the Rietvlei reserve. Arno also explained
how a reserve like Rietvlei is used by tertiary education
institutions for experiential training and research. After
visiting Rietvlei, the delegates continued on to the top of
Blaauwberg Hill, for a magnificent view, and then on to
Atlantic Beach for lunch and a discussion on biodiversity.
They then finished the tour with a visit to the beach at
Blouberg on their way back to the Convention Centre. The
delegates expressed their admiration for our wonderfully
bio-diverse environment. The theme of Biodiversity was
introduced to ICLEI for the first time at this world
conference and has now been adopted as a program to be added
to the work of ICLEI. Well done Cape Town !! See
www.iclei.org for more info.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Advance warning of our AGM, so please diarise it now: it
will be held on Thursday 4 May at 19:30 for 20h00 at the
Rietvlei Education Centre.

Please feel free to contact us on any matter. Our e-mail
address is at the top of this newsletter as is our website
address if you want additional information or to read past
newsletters. An additional e-mail address is
info@friendsofrietvlei.net . Please get involved!!!

Thanks still go to Caltex Refinery for sponsoring envelopes
for the posted newsletter.